Project 422875

This CIHR Chair on LGBTQI2S Wellness and Resilience aims to study stress biology, mental health, and resilience of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) people across adulthood. To better understand how stigma makes us sick, we will measure a comprehensive index of chronic stress called allostatic load. Allostatic load indexes hormonal, immune, metabolic, and cardiovascular health. Previous work by our group has pioneered the study of allostatic load among the LGBTQ+ community and found very mixed findings that point to distinct risk and resilience profiles. We expect that lifelong stigma exposure contributes to unique patterns of allostatic load and mental health among LGBTQ+ sub-groups, but also unique resilience buffers like health behaviours and social support. This Chair will allow us to identify modifiable resilience factors. First, we leverage existing data collected from a past study that recruited 217 heterosexual and cisgender people - that is, people whose gender identity matches with their birth-assigned sex. This Chair will recruit 480 LGBTQ+ new people to provide comparison of allostatic load to that of heterosexual/cisgender people of different ages. Next, we will identify individual differences that boost or buffer the negative effects of stigma on allostatic load and mental health. Lastly, changes in risk and resilience pathways among LGBTQ+ sub-groups (e.g., older, transgender) will be explored in a 2-year follow-up of 120 younger LGBTQ+ participants. In our knowledge translation plan, we will adapt Collaborator Isabelle Ouellet-Morin's +Fort © mobile app designed to fight victimization. The new app will be piloted by LGBTQ+ participants ages 18-25 to create an LGBTQ+ version called +Fièr in French or +Proud in English. Studying LGBTQ+ health provides better understanding of stress mechanisms. This can help us unravel the ways in which stigma 'gets under the skin and skull' of Canadians from diverse minority populations.